Gail Smith

Cassis thanks for doing that..  I was a bit busy when I replied I am in the middle of cheese making. I am sure that you can ice cube the whole buttermilk and then make your own with the cubes. I use the buttermilk as a starter for the cheese.  I havent seen whole butter milk here in Dordognefordshire but I will have another look when I go to the supermarket. If you are not sure what you want in terms of which powder then have a look at a site for British or American online dairy provision shops and they usually have a good description of what you are buying plus a picture of the packet.  Then go to AP site and pick out what you want.  It is much cheaper to buy it here.  I am very new at this and learning rapidly.  If I find out more I will let you know.   Gail x

If you have a look at Alliance Pastorale website and look at their catalogue you will find what you want. Look at the dairy section of the PDF file catalogue and look at page 13.  There are all sorts of starter cultures for making cheese, butter and yoghurt.  All the places in the UK and USA actually get theirs from here in France.  I have just bought a buttermilk starter culture and it worked a treat. When you make it up to a litre with milk you can freeze it in an ice cube tray and then just get a couple of ice cubes out when you need it and put it in the warm milk for 24 hours to make the buttermilk.  Just dont forget to make another load before they run out.   Gail x

My GP here is English and has been here for about 2 years.  She hardly spoke any French when she arrived but took lessons with someone locally who had a specialist knowledge of medical jargon and is now fluent.  Her husband is Greek and he is also fluent. I asked her about how hard it had been and she told me that she just threw herself in at the deep and and had a meteoric learning curve. She is very popular with her french patients and also the British ones.   Gail x

How strange it is when the shoe is on the other foot? We are in the process of renting some rough land near to where we live.  It is an unofficial agreement with nothing in writing.  The farmer will plough the land for us and we have to seed it ourselves.  After that we can fence it, grow crops, make hay or whatever we want.  We are paying him the going rate per hectare for the rental plus all the MSA charges that he has to pay for it. He is our neighbour and we trust him with this as he is one of the most straight people I have ever met.  He is helping us out (for a fee) because he knows how desperately we have been looking to rent more land for our horses and cannot find any. I wouldnt dream of assuming any right of ownership over the land after x number of years nor would I turf him off if he should want it back.  I cannot imagine what the law would say to me should I go to them and tell them that I was now the legal farmer of the land because my horses now graze it or that I had put fertiliser on it.  I am pretty sure though that they wouldnt hand over the right to it. I realise the law is there to protect peoples land and property but it makes me wonder about our paranoia about being above reproach and beyond the call of duty.  What must our neighbours think of us if we cannot be neighbourly?  I know I am naive and that people do get problems but it's sad that we can deny our neighbour something which he might find of benefit when in effect by not allowing him to use it we are throwing it down the pan.  Gail xx

Ooops, thanks for that.  Now I know   Gail x

Hi I would like to know more about Dexters etc.  I tried to pm you but cant see how to do it.  Perhaps you know how and could pm me?   Gail

Susan did you mean 'not' a louer proffesional? We are not 'Louer proffesoinel' and just want to declare the right regime for much less than 20 k euros income per annum. We thought that we didnt have to register in any way to have a gite and just had to declare income to the impots on our return.  They now want us to register the gite even with the declared a small income for last year.    

There must be hundreds of you out there who have registered your gite with the impots. Can you answer my query? Having just submitted our french tax return we have been sent some forms to complete as we have declared some income from our gite...apparently we have to register the activity. The form is Form P0-i Can anyone tell me which Option Fiscale I should adopt for gite income. We obviously sumbitter our gite income in the correct box on the tax forms (so we gwt the 78% tax relief and then taxed on the rest. My only real concern is that I don't choose a fiscale regime which gets me taxed on a different basis to that. I assume I choose to register as  a B.I.C but do i tick 'Micro', Reel Simplifee' or 'Reel Normal'. Like I said, my only real concern is wheher my choice will affect detrimentally the 78% allowance i get on this type of income. thank you

If the CU was applied for by you/in your name, and you do not want to make any changes to it,  you should be able to do this by post to the Mairie. I let my CU get past the 8 weeks, in fact it had expired by a few days and there was no way they were going to extend it. However, even though I had to re-apply, they used the old one as reference and the nice lady at our Mairie just filled out a much simpler single page form which she attched to the old CU and sent it off for me. The new one arrived in less than a fortnight. I suppose though, that if you let it expire there is a very small risk that it may not be granted again and a greater chance that they may add some additional conditions to the new one (as they did with mine; originally they made no mention of additional fosse septique requirements and the second time they stipulated I had to consult the Maire as to whether this would be required.)

Yes I am sure as the governing body for non-doctor acupuncturist sent me the literature stating this and the Chambre de Commerce reiterated it. Gail

I had very similar problems when registering my business as I am an acupuncturist but not a Doctor and they didnt recognise this.  In the end after much debate they agreed that I should register as a 'Practicien en Medicine Chinoise'.  They were quite happy then and are only too happy to take my cotisations from me.  Incidentally because my profession is not recognised here I do not have to pay into the compulsory pension scheme.  I think you will find that you just have to find the right lable for yourself so that they can slot you into the system.  There are people here who do contract farm work as  a friend of mine had one to do some work in her fieilds. Gail  

We have 3 dogs that came from the SPA or the Phoenix and I wouldnt have any other kind.  I adore all of them and if I could I would have a couple more but Hubby wouldnt be too happy.  I would say that a rescue dog can be so satisfying. Gail x

For a holiday home?  

I cant find the thread about having a cat put to sleep.  Can someone post a link please?   Gail

We live in Northern Dordogne between Riberac and Perigueux and it is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  We have four seasons here and the winters although colder than the UK are drier and generally brighter.  We dont get many of those interminable dank grey days and if you do get a couple then you know it's only a matter of days until it's bright again.  February and March are wet but we need that wet for the grass.  Today we have been outside working in the garden in our shorts as it was lovely, warm and sunny.  Our gite guest had a moment of madness and decided to get in our unheated pool today, but I wouldnt recommend that! The summers are hot and sometimes a bit too hot for me but if you adopt the french way and close the shutters to keep the house cool then it is a welcome respite to come into the house. I wouldnt want to be any further south than we are because of the grass for our horses but here in N. Dordogne it is just the right balance for us and I can recommend it. Gail

I found this site which is for Reflexology and has lots of info if you want to set up your business here http://www.medecines-douces.com/ecole-formation/centre/ecole-reflexologie-toulouse.htm   Indian head massage is massage de crane indien so that you know.  I have searched on the internet for it briefly and cant find any associations but the site above might be helpful re insurance.  Also contact your UK insurer they might be able to point you in the right direction. Hope this helps Gail x

I got my insurance through the French acupunture association called SIATTEC.  I found them by searching online.  How good is your french.  There are loads of alternative thereapy sites you just need to search for them.  If I have time I will ahve a look. You can call yourself whatever you like when you register as long as you dont call yourself anything which only a medical doctor can do.  Practicien en Medicin Indien will be fine I think. Gail

Thanks for clarifying that Chris.  In the paperwork from the French Acupuncture association they state that no-one has been prosecuted!!  Maybe in their eyes a caution isnt a prosecution?  That prolly means that I am not insured against being cautioned then.  Sometimes I do wonder why I bother working over here Gail x

I am an acupuncturist here in France and had to jump through the same hoops to become registered.  I am not allowed to call myself an acupuncturist so after many misunderstandings at the URRSAF offices I settled on calling myself a 'Practicien en Medicin Chinois'. At the end of the day it is all in a name.  As long as you dont call yourself whatever it is you are they are happy to register you and for you to pay the state cotisations.  However you do run the risk of being prosecuted although as far as I know there has never been a prosecution yet.  I have insurance against being prosecuted here which is provided by the governing body of acupuncture here in France.  It is the weirdest situation possible! I am very highly qualified in the UK and have an honours degree in acupuncture from Oxford Brookes University.  Most doctors learn their acupuncture at weekend sessions so I have no qualms about my skill levels. I cant advertise in the press except to say I have opened a new clinic etc.  My GP here knows what I do and is all for it so I am hoping that I can work under her umbrella in the future. Gail

I have a friend who is looking for a home for one of her horses as a companion.  I will tell her about your post and maybe she will be in touch.  She is in the Dordogne.   Gail

Last year we were only on their web site and we only got 2 bookings and about 2 other enquiries.  This year we are in the brochure and on the web site and we are near enough fully booked already for the summer.  We have also had over 30 enquiries all from the brochure, mostly for dates that were already booked and so we couldnt accomodate them.  I dont think we have had one enquiry this year direct from the web site. I think CN are very expensive but we are booked and that is the main thing.   Gail

Hi Fiona We kill and cure our own bacon and ham and I make sausages too.  I also smoke it which tastes amazing. I got my salt petre from the pharmacy and I think it is called sel petre funnily enough [:)]  It took me a while to get them to understand what I wanted but after a lot of laughing and stuff I finally managed it.  It never occurred to me to frenchify the word... duh! The last lot I did was with a cure that I got sent over from Ascotts in the Uk and it was a sweetcure mix and I have to say it was the best bacon I have tasted or made.  If you are interested in Ascotts cures then when you look at the site dont take any notice of the price of postage because it ends up being just a fraction of what they quote on their order form.  They are really helpful too if you ring them up. What sort of cures do you do?  Are they wet or dry cure?  Do you smoke yours? Gail  

We are in 24 in a place called Grand Brassac between Riberac and Brantome. It's me and hubby, our adopted chien de chasse, 2 horses, 16 chooks, 7 ducks and 2 ish rabbits.  (well it was 2 last time I looked, could be more by tomorrow) I am always happy to meet anyone new so feel free to pm and come for coffee especially if you want to talk horses or smallholding.   Gail xx

In garden centres you can get some nice sturdy gardening gloves with warm fleecy linings.  They will do the job although they can be quite expensive they will last well.   Gail x

We went to the 'Expo' at Perigueux a couple of weeks ago and for the first time ever saw a pool fence which I thought was attractive.  It was made from wooden round poles and was very organic looking and natural.  I expect it cost an arm and a leg and we could never afford it but it did look nice.  My husband is a professional wood worker and could reproduce this fence for a fraction of what they are asking but of course he cant because it has to be official.  Gail